Feminist & Sociotechnical Perspectives on Education in Kenyan Refugee Camps IRDL Speaker Series with Negin Dahya

In this talk, Dr. Negin Dahya will discuss findings from a series of research studies exploring the role of information and communication technologies to support girls and women’s education in refugee camps. These studies involve interviews, surveys, and focus group discussions with refugee women and men, with a focus on mobile phones, social networks, and global communication in education. Dahya’s talk will address the mutually shaping roles of society and technology in relation to gender equity and education. Her recent work provides rich insight into the role of technology to support access to higher education in the Dadaab refugee camps, and teachers’ access to professional development and peer-to-peer support communities locally and globally in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps. Dahya will conclude with some discussion of needed next steps in education and technology research in refugee camp settings.

 Bio

Dr. Negin Dahya completed her PhD from York University’s Faculty of Education and worked for 5 years at the University of Washington Information School in Seattle before returning to Toronto. Her current appointment at the University of Toronto is with the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information. Dahya has been conducting research on the topic of refugee education and technology since 2011 when she became involved with the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees project. She is a co-convener of the Inter-Network Agency for Education in Emergencies (INEE) Technology and Education Task Team and author of Education in Conflict and Crisis: How Can Technology Make a Difference? A Landscape Review. Dahya refugee education research has been published in AERJ, Comparative Education, and Information, Communication & Society.